I was confused. On which side of this unsolved murder was Holmes landing? This exhausting day was, unfortunately, far from over.
Once again, we retired from the laboratory and returned gratefully to the warm sitting room. I can only speak for myself, but I was delighted to discover that Mrs. Hudson had left plates of cold sliced beef, bread and pudding on the dining table – along with fresh pots of tea and coffee. I charged over and began building sandwiches for everyone.
Holmes and Dr. Kirk settled back on the sofa, evidently content to wait for sustenance, and continued their conversation.
“Dr. Kirk,” ventured Holmes, “I would like more information, if you please, about the origin and the contents of the green bag found the day of the murder.”
“Certainly. A green cloth bag – normally used to store tools for the motorboat – was found in the brush between the Sheppard home and the lake. It contained Dr. Sam’s wristwatch, a metal key chain holding a fraternity ring, several charms and five keys. A group of teenage boys had been searching for the missing murder weapon. Larry Houk, the 16-year-old son of Esther and Spencer Houk, spotted the bag above the beach house and about seven feet east of the beach steps.”
I turned with mustard jar in hand and asked, “Is it normal for American police to enlist teenage boys to prowl around a murder scene searching for clues?”
“No, and nothing was normal about this investigation. The boys dumped the jewelry into their hands before turning the bag over to the police, of course obliterating any chance to obtain meaningful fingerprints.”
“And who were these busy boys?” Holmes inquired of Dr. Kirk.
“Oh, Larry Houk and other neighborhood boys who grew up hanging around the Sheppard home, shooting hoops and batting balls. Some of them, like Larry, idolized Sam and no doubt had teenage crushes on Marilyn. They evidently had a sort of club house above the Sheppard’s garage.”
“I see,” said Holmes cryptically. “Please continue, Dr. Kirk.”
“The prosecution homed in on Dr. Sam’s watch. It was a self-winding type, labeled ‘automatic,’ with an expanding metal band. The watch had stopped at 4:15. When removed from the bag, three things about the watch were most unusual: (1) the expanding band had been stretched to the point of breaking or damaging the springs so that it would not tighten; (2) blood was smeared on the crystal and band; and (3) droplets of moisture were seen under the crystal.
“The watch was turned over to Mary Cowan for examination on July 5th. Strangely, she was unable to group the blood in the ABO system, even though ABO is the easiest of all blood grouping systems to test. She identified the M factor, but she failed to find either the anti-A or the anti-B agglutinins, both of which are present in reasonably fresh O-group blood, and far more significant than the M factor.
“We know Marilyn was an O-group person, and earlier testing by Mary Cowan had shown that she carried the M factor. But over 40 percent of the population have blood type O, while about 80 percent, whether belonging to the universal groups A, B, AB, or O, carry the M factor.”
“Why do you believe the prosecution technician failed on the ABO grouping?”
“Simple. It wasn’t Marilyn’s blood. Look — Miss Cowan had an adequate amount of reasonably fresh blood. Having grouped Marilyn’s blood previously, she must have known that it grouped with ease. When the blood on the watch responded differently, she should have at least considered the possibility that the blood on the watch came from someone else!
“If you will remember, I encountered great difficulty in grouping blood from that unique spot in the murder room. At the same time, I had no trouble grouping Marilyn’s blood from wherever I took it. I am certain the difficult-to-type blood in the murder room did not come from Marilyn. Isn’t it likely that this difficult-to-type blood on Sam’s watch also did not come from Marilyn and, in fact, was the murderer’s blood? He certainly was the last person to handle the watch, and there is strong reason to believe that the killer had a bleeding wound on his hand.”
“Hmmm, I can see the logic in that,” Holmes murmured. “In reading the court transcripts, I was intrigued to find that the prosecution interpreted the presence of blood on the watch, along with water under the crystal, to mean that Sheppard had bloodied the watch during the murder and had gotten water under the crystal when he went to the lake to wash blood from himself. These assumptions were taken as positive proof that the theory of guilt was correct.”
Dr. Kirk, waving his hands in dismay, replied, “Oh, I know, I know. But neither prosecution nor their so-called experts bothered to test their theory. Instead of following the evidence, they wore blinders forged by their unshakable belief that Sam Sheppard killed his wife. Had they simply placed blood on a watch, let it dry for a reasonable length of time, then immersed it in water, they would have found that the blood was removed in an extremely short time. Generally, blood washes off metal or glass in less than one minute.”
“And ironically,” responded Holmes, “one of the prosecution’s strongest points, when properly interpreted, is a stronger point for the defense. The blood on the watch could not have survived soaking in the lake, therefore it is an indisputable fact that the water got under the crystal before – not after – the blood was deposited on the watch.”
“But wait a minute,” I pondered that statement in the face of Holmes’ satisfied smile, “are you saying Dr. Sam would have been lying in the lake before putting jewelry in the bag? That makes no sense.”
“True. Because once again we have a red herring flopping around and confusing the facts of this case!” exclaimed Kirk. “Water can condense under a watch crystal during the normal course of daily life. Everyone has experienced that from time to time. The blood on the watch was directly associated with murder, but the water had to be under the crystal before the blood was deposited. Therefore, the water under the crystal had absolutely no connection with the murder.”
I let that comment sink in as I dug into my notes once again. “Well, what about the blood found on Mrs. Sheppard’s watch? Miss Cowan testified that her ABO blood tests were inconclusive with this watch as well, but a private investigator hired by Dr. Sam’s brothers said otherwise.[1] This chap wrote a letter in 1959 wherein he documented that he discovered, “An original record from the office of the Coroner of Cuyahoga County indicating tests from blood on the deceased’s watch worn when murdered, showing both A and B cells.” He further wrote, “Neither Dr. Sam Sheppard’s blood nor the blood of his murdered wife contained any B cells. Thus, the presence of a bleeding third party in the murder bedroom is proved.” He also noted that he had in his possession, a photograph of the never-before-mentioned record,”
“Blood test results in the coroner’s office never introduced into evidence!” proclaimed Holmes. “Inconceivable!”
“Unfortunately, the defense was not given access to blood samples for independent testing before the trial, and I never had opportunity to test the blood found on either watch, so I cannot confirm these results,” said Dr. Kirk.
“However,” he added, “this incomplete reference to the presence of A and B cells does not make it clear if these were anti-A and anti-B agglutinins – which would indicate type O blood — or A and B antigens, which would indicate type AB blood.”
“Hmmm, yes,” considered Holmes, scribbling once again in his well-used notebook. “Of course, if it was the former, one could argue that the type O blood was Marilyn’s. But based on Miss Cowan’s inconclusive blood testing results and your similar testing difficulty with the unique blood spot, the blood on Marilyn’s watch, similar to the blood on Dr. Sam’s watch, most likely came from the murderer having type O blood with slow agglutination and delayed solubility.”
“If only that kind of clear thinking had been present in 1954,” shrugged Dr. Kirk. “Sadly, this was another crucial piece of evidence ignored and now lost beyond confirmation.”
At this impasse, I served each colleague one of my glorious gourmet sandwiches and settled myself on the sofa. “So, getting back to the green bag, what is the significance of the bag and its contents?”
Dr. Kirk responded without taking even one bite of his sandwich. “Whoever committed this murder tried hard to make it look like a robbery. In my opinion, the killer ripped Dr. Sam’s watch off his wrist, pulled his keychain off his trousers with enough force to rip the pocket, stuffed the jewelry into the green bag and threw the fool thing into the bushes as Dr. Sam chased him down the beach house stairway. The killer knew the bag would be easy to find.”
“Or did they tip off the searchers?” Holmes murmured.
Without further comment, Holmes flipped to another page in his notes. “Let’s talk about the tooth fragments found in the murder room.”
As far as I was concerned, this was one of the most critical unresolved issues of the case. Both Holmes and I settled back with our lunch and cups of tea, ready to listen and, in my case, to take notes on the discussion.
“Vitally important,” Kirk began. “As we started to discuss earlier, the court transcript stated that two ‘tooth fragments’ were found on the bed when Marilyn’s body was removed, and a third was found on the floor underneath the bed.
“I first saw two of these so-called fragments in the prosecutor’s office on January 25th. The first piece from the bed included the entire visible portion of the right medial incisor, cleanly broken at the gum line, 5/8-inch wide and ¼ inch from the biting surface to the fracture. The second piece, also from the bed, was a part of the left incisor, roughly half as large, 3/16 inch by 1/8 inch in size, which also had broken at the gum line. This tooth had split down the middle.”
“Obviously significant, large portions of two front teeth,” observed Holmes.
“Exactly. And any competent investigator would have been driven to determine two things in relation to these teeth: (1) Where had they come from, and (2) how had they been removed from the person’s mouth. Coroner Gerber’s chief pathologist, Dr. Adelson, testified that the two tooth fragments from the bed came from the mouth of Marilyn Sheppard.
“No injuries were visible in the photographs of Marilyn’s mouth, nor in the entire lower part of her face below the temple and the bridge of her nose. According to the testimony of Dr. Adelson, no bruise or injury was present around the mouth apart from a ‘crusted abrasion on the inside of the lower lip.’ He described this as a ‘scrape’ that measured one inch by ½ inch.”
Dr. Kirk’s frustration with the entire situation was obvious as he paced back and forth in front of us. By this time, Holmes and I had gulped our tea and were leaning forward in our seats with anticipation for the pathologist’s conclusion. I knew that Dr. Kirk respected Dr. Adelson’s professionalism. Surely Adelson recognized the significance of these broken teeth!
“The cause for the victim’s broken teeth was pointedly neglected in Adelson’s court testimony,” continued Kirk. “He gave the impression that no one had any idea how they had broken, nor did anyone care to find out.
He waved aside our shocked responses and elaborated on the evidence. “If they had cared about the teeth, the prosecutuion could have argued that if the victim’s mouth had been open, a direct blow to the teeth could have caused the fracturing. Aside from the fact that this would not explain the abrasion, the teeth would have been driven back into the throat – not pulled out. Furthermore, during the course of a beating, a victim does not have time or opportunity to spit out broken teeth. Once again, careful laboratory experimentation was necessary.”
Holmes, of course, was most interested in how this experiment was accomplished and listened intently, as Dr. Kirk explained.
“I mounted extracted incisors, supplied by helpful dentists, in a metal bar with Wood’s metal, which melts at a temperature lower than that of boiling water. The solidified metal held the roots of the teeth at least as firmly as the jawbone is capable of holding teeth.
“After the mounting was complete, I struck the teeth, pulled them laterally, and broke them with both hard and soft objects using both impact and steady pulls.”
“And what did you learn from these experiments?”
“First, I learned that sound teeth are extremely difficult to break,” said Kirk with a slight smile.
“But as I recall,” I interjected, “Sam testified that Marilyn’s teeth were somewhat poor.”
“That is true, Dr. Watson, thus it would take a lesser force to break them into any of the fracture patterns I witnessed in the laboratory.” Dr. Kirk, ever the professor, outlined his findings for us:
- When struck sharply, teeth tend to shatter, splitting lengthwise as well as crosswise – often into many pieces.
- Lateral force, applied steadily, tends to break teeth cleanly across.
- Hard objects tend to shatter teeth more severely than do softer objects – regardless of the nature of the force, and
- Regardless of the force applied, teeth always broke off angularly rather than straight across. The angle of the break was such that:
- The broken edge was always higher on the side opposite the force, and
- The broken edge was always lower on the side to which the force was applied.
“As has been stated, the teeth from Marilyn Sheppard’s mouth were broken quite cleanly. Application of the principles learned from experimentation showed that a force from a relatively soft object had produced the break. The break slanted upward on the side next to the lips; it was lower on the tongue side. Here was clear and convincing evidence that the pull exerted on the teeth had been from the inside out – consistent with the idea that she had bitten a hand that was subsequently yanked away.”
“How did the prosecution address this crucial piece of evidence,” asked Holmes, assuming such critical evidence could not be ignored.
“It was a sad comedy of errors,” responded Kirk. “Because they had already decided Sam Sheppard was the murderer, the prosecution did not bother to examine the blood in the murder room. Having no reason to suspect that blood in the murder room came from anyone other than Marilyn Sheppard, the broken teeth seemed unimportant. Therefore, the prosecution quickly disposed of the entire issue, considering it to be of no consequence.”
Complete silence.
“As far as I know,” Kirk added, “the origin of the third tooth fragment – 5/32 inch by 1/8 inch and found on the floor — was never identified. It was simply ignored because it had not come from Marilyn Sheppard’s mouth and Sam Sheppard had no chipped teeth.”
Another cold silence of disbelief filled the room. I’m sure I stopped breathing altogether. Dr. Kirk, who had been aware of this travesty all along, sat glowering in his chair. Holmes, to my amazement, bolted from the sofa and lunged for the door, grabbing his hat and coat as he went. “Gentlemen, please make haste to Madame Tussauds at once!”
[1] Harold Bretnall, P.I., researched the case from 1955 to 1961. His 1959 letter was quoted in Jackson Pollack’s book, Dr. Sam, An American Tragedy, p. 234.
